many question the sudden resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth reverberate throughout the catholic world. the french and modern forces reclaim the city of first hand account from the city after a surprise attack by militants. french claims of a victorious campaign. underground blast in russia called the republic rescue is still looking for one possible survivor. from the new center here in moscow this is a. twenty four hours

a day. the vatican has announced that pope benedict the sixteenth will step down on february the twenty eight citing old age eighty five year old will become the first head of the catholic church to resign from the post in nearly six centuries. has more. well it's described by one cardinal as a lightning bolt from a clear blue sky it certainly caught some of benedict's most senior advisers on the hope his spokes person said that it had been left frankly flabbergasted by the news that the pope will be stepping down at the end of the month now benedict is eighty five years old obviously not a young man but the cardinals knew that when they elected him and he was supposed to be there for a lot longer than this i think they would have thought it's not unprecedented but it's not really done that often in fact the last time a pope stepped down was six hundred years ago it's certainly not been an easy ride

it's not been the longest papacy just under eight years but in that time the certainly being plenty of drama no nice includes one of the one of the reasons that benedict said that he has to step down as he thought his age and made him physically and in some cases mentally unable to deal with the everyday life of being the pope in the modern world one of the series of scandals that we've seen involve the so-called vatileaks similar to wiki leaks a series of documents that were distributed online but which well apparently showed a c.v. a series of shady dealings done by the vatican this type of thing of course not something your average eighty five year old has to deal with but they included some quite serious allegations including the fact that the vatican colluded with silvio berlusconi's government in italy to try and get pressure taken off the church of rome for paying taxes on properties which it own and there's also

a list that was published of well less than savory clients for the fatah can bank which included some people alleged to be sicilian mafia bosses and of course one of the major scandals that is will be remembered for benedict's papacy concerns child abuse now in his previous. this job before he became pope he was essentially regarded as the john paul of seconds papal bulldog he was the defender of the doctrine of fair for faith and not role he is accused of covering up sexual abuse scandals all around the world but also here in germany in fact in recent times there's been further controversy over this as the church here in germany canceled an investigation into child abuses that ranged back to the 1940's and stop that investigation apparently according to the man who was conducting it because they weren't happy with what would be made public so there's

certainly been controversy and it will be something that's picked over for a long time to come after benedict steps down at the end of this month where for more on the pope's unexpected resignation let's talk to anti abuse campaign up barbara doris she joins me live now from the u.s. barbara did pope benedict the sixteenth managed to restore the image of the catholic church in light of the geishas and other scandals. no we don't believe he did we believe that he uttered words he said they were still through the priesthood he apologized to the victims but he took no actions he didn't discipline a single church official for hiding enabling shielding to predators or you know moving them from country to country from diocese to diocese so until he does that nothing has changed and we believe the words were just empty empty promises and you know just just just reading in some of the tributes to him they say that he'd

handle it as if he was god sweeper making big changes he was somebody who tried to resolve the numerous issues that plague the church and you're saying he failed absolutely if the people be protected these predators are promoted by cardinal law was involved in the scandal was huge and yet cardinal long managed to land in the vatican on the most powerful committees that exist within the vatican so to the message that you really believe he sent was if you were unable shield and protected predators you will be rewarded and we don't feel that's the right message we feel that he should be taking action we have a bishop in the united states that was convicted of child endangerment and is still being allowed to run a diocese what kind of a message is that to send to the world do you think there's more then to be official explanation of his resignation. hard to say the vatican is very secretive they're certainly not known for being opened in our midst and transparent we have no idea why he did it but we feel he has two more weeks in which he could you know

take some huge steps towards protecting children if he would discipline even one or two cardinals and bishops for the part they've played in this cover up it certainly would shut the tone for electing a new pope and while at the work would expect well has he set the total set the ground for his the next person to take over from him what can we expect from whoever it is his successor to do well i would expect more of the same since those that enable and shield and protect continue to be promoted to continue to be given the most powerful positions within the vatican the message is clear if you follow the company line if you keep the secret if you put the reputation of the church above this if t. of the children then you will be promoted what a terrible message to send and the idea is who could take over the ten years the list is long and seems very very complex complicated your very critical of the

church but surely isn't there an element of reform there has been success in the past as i mentioned and in modern times we will see that in the lives of what the pope has achieved so far and who could take over i think what we've seen in the way of reforms has come because the victims have found the courage to come forward attorneys have brought these cases to the courts and allowed civil authorities to take over governments like the the irish government and the governor australia are doing their own investigations to me it has certainly helped to educate people about the depth of the crisis and the cover up these are the sources where we see that the forms are happening not from within church officials you talk about cover up a crisis what about the transition process do you think there could be some form of power struggle behind the scenes. i you know i'm not a very conservative but i would assume there is and this issue has certainly played a part in the fact that many people no longer trust church officials like they did

in the past and that's a very sad statement that you can't trust your bishops. leave it there barbara doris joining us there from the u.s. thank you very much indeed for your time thank you. for a modern troops have regained control of go after is most militants launch a surprise attack on what is northern mali is most populous city authorities say three civilians were killed during sunday's fighting this comes after recent claims by france that the military campaign is almost complete and as local correspondent gonzalo one chair reports the joint forces a struggling to fully secure the region still occupied by insurgents. the situation in mali is obviously going to have a gruesome ending there are more than enough indications of that last friday the country was shaken by the very first terrorist attack in its history according to the witness report of what was carried out by a fifteen year old suicide bomber that of arab descent the bomber was the only one

killed after the detonation of a few hours later responsibility for the attack was claimed by the motor wod jihadists one thing to remember here is that this is a vast desert territory and therefore it is very difficult to control this attack is just another example confirming that despite the news reports of the french army having taken over gal timbuktu in the dow there is still a long way to go before jihadists are ousted from the country in severe artie's crew was given access to the civil defense camps where volunteers and civilians are preparing to fight against the jihadists the f.l. and they and the coil local pro-government militia movements that account for a total of two thousand eight hundred operatives but do not support the strategy chosen by the french in mali and joined forces in fighting the terrorists. we share the same goals but what they did was a really bad service to us there was no really about the army itself al-qaeda had been operating on mali and territory for

a number of years now they have all those and they keep getting more by kidnapping white people for ransom drones pays them to have a citizens returned and then the terrorists have cash to buy weapons if we talk about al-qaeda there's no way the army can fight it because that she it's terrorism in action. those paramilitary who know the terrain well say fighting a war they cannot take part in is meaningless one thing all these paramilitary groups have in common is their patriotism and zeal to protect their country and drive away the narco terrorists but this is a losing fight given the financial resources and ammunition stock they have. i'm ready to go it's all lengths i'm ready to give my life right now to save my family up there in the north because we're all here have families i believe france will stop these attacks for a while or in the french troops leave they will start all over again because the criminals are still out there hiding them on the civilians not all of them have

been caught really need to be given the mandate to complete this mission our own we're ready for it on the we can do it because we grew up in the north we know the terrain and the people so we're the ones who can stop them and find them in the villages and the desert where we know every corner and every part of land. over all while the jihadists forces are taking over their land kidnapping people and using suicide bombers to fight for their cards the civilian population remains the country's most vulnerable at root. well for more on this let's talk to eric denise's director of the french center for intelligence studies joining me live now from paris france says it will not stay much longer in mali heading its military campaign a success but now with this recent surprise attack by rebels just how sure comparison a speedy exit. the problem we're we will see if their position is a success we don't see a persian is a victory because we know we have absolutely difficult to fight against

a jihadist group anyway remember what people see a few months ago everybody was thinking that it was absolutely. money without hundred of casualties but in fact we discovered the. stronger in. the word against and so this is what the french are we going to be very proud of the dog but only for that he was all saw. previews that we were expecting tourist attack but. unfortunately very soon so in effect what we're seeing perhaps this campaign now by the militants turning into guerrilla warfare and you're saying militarily so far it's been a success but now this could be something very different going to be impossible to root out all those militants and they could cause a lot more fear and instability now in mali yes because it's something absolutely normal that the terrorists try to react they have been suffering a lot of the casualties between three hundred and four hundred terrorists been killed i mean so much more important number of terrorists seems to for them to win

the u.s. and they did against them but we we expected such a reaction but we don't think that the reaction would be so. important like it is now begins to because it's not against them because in order to book to as well of the all the book edition of supporting the local government as well as the french troops so we are expecting some back tax but if you look at the first act like it's very i mean something like people were just trying to be so i said bombers because they kill themselves but they don't do a lot of the victims around the population of course they're sort of warfare could lead to even more civilian casualties we've seen some already of course in mali just how will the french authorities deal with that not just civilian casualties but of course the dangers of of french military casualties too yes but you know as a any of you we know that we lost some casualties and we have been very lucky

because during deliberations we had just won one. out of the country with bin was been killed and this is why also we want to leave the country very soon because we know buchanan know. what happens or it when france leaves the country there is talk of course it returning to exploit the resources that mali have some people being very critical of that but wouldn't that exploitation lead to investment and then perhaps prosperity. stability further down the line everybody wins. just briefly the keys a country need a huge development program to fight against to find against or is one accident french troops are going to leave i think we will are some under some hundred maybe some one thousand guys in the country but if we leave we see that we need to be replaced by a friggin or european units and also we say we need absolutely

a huge development program to fight against all the poverty all the reason. in favor of the. development in money eric thanks very much your thoughts are to me as director of the french center for intelligence studies live in paris. death of a debt financial worries make suicide rates rates sharply in the u.k. . still to come a student leaves his final words on a bank statement a sign of a worrying trend of the deadly impact of money troubles a report that is just ahead. plus we explain why environmentalists in ukraine are outraged by the authorities decision to go ahead with a multi-billion dollar gas project that story. stay with us. download

the official. yourself choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television just. not with your mobile device so you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. you know sometimes you see a story. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you. are welcome is

a big issue. continues now seventeen people have been killed by explosion in the. republic that's according to the emergency services who also say one person is still missing the blast happened eight hundred meters below the surface while more than two hundred fifty miners were underground. at least two hundred forty two people have been evacuated from the mind immediately after the explosion that is the safety that created at one point there were several people who were missing looks like most of them have been recovered unfortunately other than that we also know that immediately already a program has been set up in order to help financially the families of those up in the loss to their relatives say in the blast and that's it compensation should be

in the amount of about two million people so that is roughly sixty six thousand dollars really limited because of the blast to the gas explosion in the mine you have to mention here that there has been no fire immediately following the blast and that could be said to be a fortunate thing because otherwise of course we'd be looking at a death toll would be significantly higher there has been a criminal case launched also into the possible breach of security measures at the mine blast this is this is looking like the biggest in terms of death toll. mining accident over the past year and russia. suicide rates are soaring in the u.k. with money worries pushing many over the edge cuts to mental health services and aggressive debt collecting assaulted by an expert says major factors aggravating the situation. one mother who lost a child to that dispair. for the last year and

a half thorn has been coming to terms with the tragic death of a son aged just twenty three toby took his own life writing his final words on the back of a bank statement after racking up a three thousand pound overdraft and a five thousand pounds student debt it was just the shock this wasn't from one but had a history of depression or mental illness or even had come across as being down or depressed you know in the last few weeks months of his life if anything he came across as someone you know didn't have a care in the world following his death and became a trustee for the charity piracy which aims to prevent suicide among young people from a home in cornwall she even runs her own blog giving advice but it's a battle her charity and similar ones around the u.k. are struggling to win suicide is on the increase according to latest figures accounting for six thousand deaths between twenty ten and twenty eleven

a rise of seven percent so why the increase while an inquest ruled that toby's financial problems were a contributing factor to his suicide experts now say that an ailing u.k. economy is partly to blame for the recent surge in deaths nationwide areas of high unemployment such as camden here in london are among those worst affected and it's a problem compounded by cutbacks in mental health services the double whammy effect of the recession is that the people are becoming more distressed more anxious and therefore more at risk of wanting to take their own lives at the same time whether sterrett in cuts means that we have fewer psychiatric beds that the crisis isn't there and if that isn't enough the growth of same day loan companies and intimidating debt collectors are adding to the pressures people are feeling according to researchers at brighton university we have some very very good regulations to protect people. it's thinks that it debt collection however is that

particularly well it's because these practices are still. in response the u.k. government has announced plans to crack down on aggressive bailiff's from next year late night visits will not be allowed and restrictions will be put on what property can be seized they are also spending over a million pounds on research as part of a suicide strategy plans but that is only one very small step in the right direction for someone like can. mean one thing i've learned more about thirty five than i ever wanted to know but i've done a lot of reading and rethought and it's strangely complex hopefully entirely the trend will go down with what we need to be. andrew farmer for r.t. london we have more stories and great pictures for you on our website of the moment r.t. dot com here's a quick glimpse at what we've lined up for you right now u.s.

president barack obama looks set to restart a key focus of his politics you clear weapons reduction possibly tempting russia with a potential big money saving you can find out more about that on our web site at the moment plus also there. you know for sure what you'll be doing tomorrow if not than a u.s. defense giant may be able to help you know predict your future steps and even behavior just by collecting social network data more on line. with ukraine refusing to pay russian gas giant gal's problems recent seven billion dollar gas bill authorities in kiev are working on enlisting western companies to explore its shale gas reserves however the controversial method proposed to boost the country's coffers isn't going down well with environmentalists. reports. it was described as the day of ukraine's energy independence what in november last year

key have signed a one billion dollar agreement with a spanish utility to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on the black sea coast delight quickly turned into dismay when it emerged that the man signing the deal had nothing to do with the company three months later ukraine's leaders were shaking hands again this time with boiled dutch shell having signed a real deal to explore and develop the country's potentially he would shale gas reserves reportedly the third largest in europe. the expectation is about eight to ten billion cubic meters of gas production per year and the highest is up to about twenty two twenty five once it's operational we will strive to fully meet our domestic energy needs and to even become an exporter. this is definitely sweet music to keep for years ukraine has been striving to reduce its relies on the words from russia especially now when gas. was seven billion dollars

for violating gas agreements this project is definitely good we would pay between one hundred fifty to one hundred eighty dollars per cubic meter of gas instead of the four hundred fifty dollars we're now paying to gas problem but if everything is so promising why are people out in force against the shale gas initiative for the second tour no if not worse for years ukraine has often been divided on many different issues from perception of history to the official number of state languages and then you shale gas initiatives are no exception if political enemies hard line nationalists and communists have put their differences aside and spoken out against. the opposition even proposed a bill prohibiting the exploration and extraction of shale gas with. information on how the gas split between shell chevron and ukrainian companies is

class it is still not clear if it's going to be profitable plus the companies don't care about harmful it will be to the environment but political battles the size ecologists are the most concerned with a potential threat from the shale gas programme. it could lead to a full blown. but whenever they speak out the pro-government media labels them as agents of. a usually and different camera angles that extract more gas from the rocks and so the underground system which provides fresh drinking water is completely destroyed this water is a strategic ecological resource and when one spoil it the area becomes practically non-viable. even in the most optimistic scenario ukraine may see its own shale gas filling its pipes only in a decade from now ecologists insists they're not against shale gas a. principle just at the potential environmental impact from its extraction needs to be researched and assessed before drilling begins they have already sent

a letter to the president the question is whether those at the top will be willing to listen let's see russia. reporting from kiev ukraine. that's it for me the news team for the moment will be back with more in about thirty five minutes from now in the meantime a recap of the week's sporting on ice is with stay with us for that. is trash to get rid of. but it's also a treasure. it's worth fighting for. and a trap with no way out.

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